THE STORY
Reported Haunting
The former Highland Hospital grounds are associated with reports of apparitions and shadowy figures, including a figure sometimes identified in local ghost lore as Zelda Fitzgerald, who died with other patients in a devastating 1948 hospital fire.
Highland Hospital was a prominent Asheville psychiatric institution whose patients included writer and artist Zelda Fitzgerald. In March 1948, a fire swept through a hospital building and killed Fitzgerald and several other patients. The principal hospital building associated with the tragedy no longer stands. Paranormal accounts surrounding the former grounds include apparitions, shadowy figures and an unseen presence, with some witnesses identifying one apparition as Zelda Fitzgerald. The paranormal identification remains folklore, while the hospital and fatal fire are documented history. This marker represents the former hospital site rather than a surviving hospital building.